Businessman guilty of dealing in drugs
A BELLSHILL businessman has been found guilty of drug dealing after a two-week trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
Ronnie Campbell (53), of Busby Road, had denied being concerned in the supply of amphetamine - commonly known as speed.
During the trial the court heard how police recovered a carrier bag stuffed with the Class B drug after stopping a taxi in Bellshill in November 2006.
Campbell went into the witness box yesterday (Wednesday), claiming the amphetamine was nothing to do with him and he had no idea how it got into the vehicle.
He said he had taken a taxi to Holytown where he was to buy tickets from a man for a Champions League game between Celtic and Manchester United.
Campbell said the man came into the taxi and spoke to him for a short time. It was when he arrived back in Bellshill that the taxi was stopped.
Asked if he knew what was in the bag when police recovered it, Campbell told the court: “I didn’t have a clue.”
Police later recovered more than £5,000 from a jacket in Campbell’s home. He said that was the proceeds of a business deal in Tenerife.
Campbell told the court he owned several businesses in Lanarkshire, including a pub, nightclub and car repair centres, before moving to the Spanish island in 1999 where he ran a pub.
He said the only reason he returned to Scotland was to prepare for his daughter’s wedding. She married the son of John Reid, the former Home Secretary, Motherwell North MP and Celtic FC chairman.
Following the verdict sentence was deferred. Full coverage of the case will appear in next week’s Times and Speaker.
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Saturday 25 May 2013
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